


A Week Before

by theg0oddoctor



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25992550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theg0oddoctor/pseuds/theg0oddoctor
Summary: This is what I think should've happened between the events of 3x18 and 3x19 had Claire admitted her feelings for Neil, and hadn't he gone to the brewery, where you know...Claire's POV
Relationships: Claire Browne & Neil Melendez, Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Comments: 17
Kudos: 57





	A Week Before

Day 1.

It was the first day after she had admitted her feelings for her boss to her therapist, it was the first day after she had gone to bed after crying realization tears -even though she had only had 3ish hours of sleep. It couldn’t be. Even if it explained her feelings for him - and the lack thereof for other men - for the past 3 years. It couldn’t be true. That she was utterly in love with her superior.

She came to work earlier than the usual that day, simply by the fact that she was barely able to sleep that night.

She saw him. For the first time after knowing it, she saw him for the first time after realizing she was in love with him.

“Good moning, Claire. This is today’s case.”

She took the patient’s chart while gazing into his eyes the whole time. Dr. Neil Melendez never looked so elegant, maybe it was the realization of being in love that made her see him like that, or it could just be the fact that he was indeed getting more handsome by the day.

While working on the case, she realized that nothing had changed. That is how well they work together, not even all the tension in the world could make them mess up something.

It was 8:30pm. They saved the patient. It was all fine. They were leaving the hospital together - like they were used to -, and she said how much appreciated she is to be working with him. He looked at her like he she was heaven, but that look wasn’t new, he had always looked at her like that - especially after he broke things off with his ex - but she never noticed. Until now, after he responded with just another one of the beautiful things he says to her every day, followed by a shy smile. They stared at each other from afar and wished each other goodnight. Neil, then, turned his back and left.

“Wait.” Said Claire, while staring him with her glowing green eyes.

“What?” He looked confused. 

She couldn’t say it. ‘What if he didn’t feel the same way and she just ends up ruining their friendship?’ ‘What if he did but they couldn’t do anything about it, since she was his resident?’ ‘What if they started something and didn’t work out?’ All these what if’s questions came into her mind. She wanted to tell him, she wanted to tell him so bad. Because she knew she didn’t have forever - after all, she had just lost 2 people she cared about in the past year. But she decided to wait anyway, at least another year, until she finishes her residency. It wouldn’t be right, for either, she thought.

They were both in silent. A painful silent. For almost a whole minute.

“Nothing. See you tomorrow.” She said with a little smile in her mouth.

Day 2.

It had been a day and two nights since that night at her therapist session. She woke up thinking about him. Again.

She arrived at the hospital at the same time as Neil. They greeted each other at the parking lot. She unintentionally gave him a quick happy hug. He found it odd, since they rarely do that - the only time they ever did was when she opened up to him about her mom’s death, in the stairwell - but he went with it anyways. He liked it, even though he didn’t understand.

They walked into the hospital together, but then Claire decided to go separate ways and didn’t join him in the meeting room. She had gone to the chief of surgery’s office.

“Hi Dr. Lim, good morning.”

“Dr. Browne.” she nodded. “Something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I was just wondering if I could be in Dr. Andrews’ service for the next days.” It was so painful for her to say that, because all she wanted to do was stay close to Neil the whole time, but she knew that if she did, she would eventually say something, no matter how professional she was. However, deep down, she was wishing Audrey would say no and she would just be stuck with Melendez, that’s why she responded with a sad “Okay.” when Dr. Lim said she would make that happen, no questions asked.

Her day was okay, Dr. Andrews was a great mentor. Almost as good as Melendez. But she missed him, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Not that it made her be less focused on work. She was very professional, and as matter of fact, had received several compliments from Marcus that day. She felt good. Not great, but good.

Day 7.

5 days working outside Melendez’s service. 5 days missing him. She was almost getting used to it, but not that day, as Dr Andrews had been seeing her extraordinary skills in the OR, he had a talk with the chief of surgery and the other attendings - including Dr. Melendez -, and they decided Claire would lead another surgery. A simple appendectomy. She was thrilled, not nervous though, she had assisted a lot of appendectomies in her years of residency. So she was filled with excitement, and all she wanted to do was talk with Melendez about it, but it would be kind of weird since she had been avoiding him for 5 days after that hug, she thought.

She got paged, her patient’s appendix had ruptured, so the surgery had just became a little more complicated. Nothing she couldn’t handle though. She ran to the elevator for a emergency surgery. And he was there. It was like everything around them had stopped, she looked so deep into his eyes, she missed that. She missed the glances they used to always share. She was nervous for things going out of her control, but seeing him generated an unexplained calm in her.

“Dr. Browne. Heard you got a second lead surgery today.” He said smiling.

“I did. Going to surgery now.” She shyly smiled back.

“You got this.”

Those only 3 words made her feel so more safe. He had that power in her - to be able to make her feel better with a few, and sometimes no words. His presence alone tranquilizes her. She missed working with him. She left the elevator with a big smile. 

Talking to him was all she needed to feel more secure. But in the end, it was just a reminder of how much she loves him and misses talking to him, about anything.

The surgery went great. But afterwards all she could think about is that he wasn’t with her, like he was in her first lead surgery. She missed sharing her victories with him. She missed the fact that they talked about their cases even when they weren’t working together. She missed their night runs, their bar meetings, their bowling nights… She missed… Him.

They ran into each other while leaving the hospital, again.

“Heard you rocked it.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at him for a second.

They both looked very serious. They missed each other, and it showed. 

“Claire. I know why you left my service, and I want you to know that it’s okay.”

Did he really? Did he know she left his service because she was crazy head, over heels in love with him? She thought it was all in her head, so she didn’t believe he was actually aware of what was happening.  
“I miss spending time with you, you know? I have a thing today. What do you say? Pick you up at 10?”

“I… would love to, but… I’m going out with Dash today.” She was still seeing him, trying to fill the hole inside her, she thought that maybe going out with him would make her forget about Neil. But every date she went with Dash, she realized that wasn’t possible, but it was the only way.

“Great… Good for you.” he said, while wiping out a tear that almost left his eye.

Claire had never seen Melendez crying, not even while watching overemotional movies at his place - like they did every Thursday after work. Even if it was a single tear, it hit her. She realized that maybe he had feelings too, she realized that maybe leaving his service wasn’t the right thing. They should’ve talked it out, like they always have. They really talked about everything. Neil always texted Claire when he was searching the TV channels and her favorite movie was on. Neil openly talked to her about his sister Gabby just like she openly talked to him about her mom. Their communication was beyong great. Until she made the mistake to avoid him because of her feelings. She would’ve been fine with it, had she been the only one hurt by that action. But when she saw that she hurted Neil too, her whole body overflowed with sadness and angsty. She watched him as he walked away to his car with tears in her eyes. She was about to go after him, but then he drove away, and Dash arrived. 

They got home. Dash couldn’t stop talking about something that Claire didn’t even bother to pay attention to because she was too preoccupied with Neil. 

“What do you think?” he asked.

“A… About what?” she didn’t even wait for his answer. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry. I got to go.” 

She stormed out of his apartment.

She had made her decision. She was going to tell Neil, even if it screwed up her whole career, she had to tell him how she feels. 

Browne called an Uber and she made it to Melendez’s apartment in 20 minutes. The whole time she was a prisioner of her own thoughts. She was never this nervous to tell a guy she loves him. Maybe because it was never true, until Neil. Neil Melendez was the first person she really loved in a romantic way and she couldn’t just let it go. She arrived at his apartment, and stared at his doorstep for 5 whole minutes, but he opened the door before she could have the chance to knock. 

He was in a suit, with a unbuttoned shirt. He was going out, she forgot about that. 

“Hi.” She had already rehearsed what she was going to say. She memorized every word in the 20-minute drive, but it all went away as soon as she saw his face.

“Claire. I thought you were having dinner with Dash tonight.”

“About that…” She couldn’t find the words.

“Can we talk as I walk to my car? I’m already late.” He said in a rude tone. 

“Melendez! Wait! Please just listen to me. I really need to say something to you.”

“What? Something happened with Dash? Did he hurt you?” She doesn’t know why his mind went there. Maybe it was all her shaking that made him think that.

“No…”

“Can’t we talk tomorrow then?” 

“Neil please! Can you just stay quiet and hear what I have to say? I can’t talk to you about this tomorrow, because I can’t sleep on it, like I have for the past week. Dash is great, he really is, and he apparently likes me... a lot! But I can’t keep denying this, I-I know you are my superior, I know you are my teacher and I respect you as a teacher, believe me, I really do. You are the most talented surgeon I have ever met, I told you this a million times, but… I…”

“Don’t.” He already knew where this was going, he was glad she felt the same way but at the same time he didn’t want her to say it because there was too much at risk. He couldn’t put his - and most importantly, her career in jeopardy. “I really have to go, but we talk about this tomorrow, okay? I promise.”

“No. We won’t talk about it tomorrow. Just listen to me, I have unintentionally buried this for 3 years, and I just realized that. I can’t do it anymore, I can’t spend another day without you. All I think about is you! Do you hear me? I can’t do anything, I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t spend another minute with him without you in my head all the time. And I don’t care about what happens to me or my job at this point, I just needed to get this out. I love you so much. And I think you love me too, at least I hope you do, otherwise I’m just making a fool out of myself at your doorstep... And I never do this, I never freak out in the middle of the night and go to a guy’s apartment to say how much I love him. So please listen to me when I say I love you.” Her face was soaked with tears.

“I…” You could see the happiness in his face, at that moment, their fear about putting their jobs at risk were just… gone. He thought he would never hear her say that. “Love you, too.” he said with the biggest smile she has ever seen, following with the most passionate kiss they both have ever experienced. They were swimming in idiotic happiness. They haven’t been this happy in a really, really long time.

“So… Where were you going? Maybe I’ll join you.” She asked while catching her breath from their desperate overdue infinite kisses.

“I was going to an event in a brewery with Glassman, but I guess I’ll just stay here with you.” He closed the door with his foot, while kissing her lips and putting his hand in her waist and quickly taking her shirt off.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic, so go easy on me. I haven't read many, so if there's a fic similar to this one that I don't know about, claim your credits in the comments. Hope you like it :)


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